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MERLE CURTh AN APPRAISAL AND BIBLIOGRAPY OF HIS WRITINGS
By E. David Cronon
MERLE CURTI retired from the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in Madison in June, 1968, having completed a full quarter- century of distinguished service to the Univer¬ sity and the state, the last twenty years as the occupant of the University's first named-chair of history, the Frederick Jackson Turner pro¬ fessorship. Like Turner's, Professor Curti's Wisconsin years encompassed the most produc¬ tive and stimulating phase of his career, al¬ though unlike Turner's they occurred in his full maturity at the height of his always for¬ midable intellectual powers and following his service as a popular teacher at Beloit and Smith colleges and the Teachers College of Columbia University. Born in the small village of Papillion, near Omaha, Nebraska, on Sep¬ tember 15, 1897, Professor Curti has always retained his sympathetic understanding if not invariably his sense of identity with the Middle West. At the same time, his education at Har¬ vard (A.B., summa cum laude, 1920; A.M., 1921; Ph.D., 1927), a traveling fellowship for study at the Sorbonne in 1924-1925, and his subsequent teaching, lecturing, and research at numerous universities and libraries in the United States and throughout the world pro¬ vided him with an unusually broad experience and outlook and made him a cosmopolitan in the truest sense of the term.
Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship only two years after receiving his Ph. D., over the course of his career Professor Curti received nearly every honor offered by the historical and schol¬ arly communities. He was elected president of both major American historical organizations, heading the Mississippi Valley Historical Asso¬ ciation (since renamed the Organization of American Historians) in 1951-1952 and the
American Historical Association in 1953— 1954. His pioneering study, The Growth of American Thought, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944. In 1960 the American Council of Learned Societies recognized his many contributions to humanistic knowledge with a special $10,000 award for "extraordinary scholarly achieve¬ ment." He was one of the early fellows at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society and the Ameri¬ can Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served on the Social Science Research Council, the board of directors of the Harry S. Truman Library, as vice-chairman of the board of directors of the American Council of Learned Societies, and as a Senator of Phi Beta Kappa. He played an influential role in the establish¬ ment of the flourishing interdisciplinary field of American Studies in the United States and abroad following World War II, a develop¬ ment with substantial impact on curricular matters as well as the professional relation¬ ships of many scholars. In this connection he taught as a visiting professor at various uni¬ versities in India, Japan, and Australia, and participated in Fulbright conferences on Amer- •'can Studies at Cambridge and Hyderabad. Following his Olaus Petri Lectures at Uppsala, in 1965 the King of Sweden bestowed upon Professor Curti the nation's highest civil hon¬ or, a knighthood in the Royal Order of the North Star, in recognition of his contributions to the field of American Studies in Sweden. Few Wisconsin scholars have achieved such international fame or borne it with such char¬ acteristic modesty.
His many honors and well-deserved emi¬ nence notwithstanding. Merle Curti has always
119

Merle Curti: An Appraisal and Bibliography of his Writings: A brief biography of Merle Curti (1897-1997), history professor at the University of Wisconsin for more than 20 years and occupant of the Frederick Jackson Turner chair of history. The biography is followed by 14 pages of a very extensive bibliography on works by and about Curti along with a list of the dissertations he advised. (17 pages)

Volume

054

Issue

2

Year

1970-1971

State/Province

Wisconsin;

Decade

1920-1929; 1930-1939; 1940-1949; 1950-1959; 1960-1969;

Personal Name

Curti, Merle Eugene, 1897-

Organization Name

University of Wisconsin;

Subject

Historians;

Full Text

MERLE CURTh AN APPRAISAL AND BIBLIOGRAPY OF HIS WRITINGS
By E. David Cronon
MERLE CURTI retired from the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in Madison in June, 1968, having completed a full quarter- century of distinguished service to the Univer¬ sity and the state, the last twenty years as the occupant of the University's first named-chair of history, the Frederick Jackson Turner pro¬ fessorship. Like Turner's, Professor Curti's Wisconsin years encompassed the most produc¬ tive and stimulating phase of his career, al¬ though unlike Turner's they occurred in his full maturity at the height of his always for¬ midable intellectual powers and following his service as a popular teacher at Beloit and Smith colleges and the Teachers College of Columbia University. Born in the small village of Papillion, near Omaha, Nebraska, on Sep¬ tember 15, 1897, Professor Curti has always retained his sympathetic understanding if not invariably his sense of identity with the Middle West. At the same time, his education at Har¬ vard (A.B., summa cum laude, 1920; A.M., 1921; Ph.D., 1927), a traveling fellowship for study at the Sorbonne in 1924-1925, and his subsequent teaching, lecturing, and research at numerous universities and libraries in the United States and throughout the world pro¬ vided him with an unusually broad experience and outlook and made him a cosmopolitan in the truest sense of the term.
Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship only two years after receiving his Ph. D., over the course of his career Professor Curti received nearly every honor offered by the historical and schol¬ arly communities. He was elected president of both major American historical organizations, heading the Mississippi Valley Historical Asso¬ ciation (since renamed the Organization of American Historians) in 1951-1952 and the
American Historical Association in 1953— 1954. His pioneering study, The Growth of American Thought, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944. In 1960 the American Council of Learned Societies recognized his many contributions to humanistic knowledge with a special $10,000 award for "extraordinary scholarly achieve¬ ment." He was one of the early fellows at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society and the Ameri¬ can Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served on the Social Science Research Council, the board of directors of the Harry S. Truman Library, as vice-chairman of the board of directors of the American Council of Learned Societies, and as a Senator of Phi Beta Kappa. He played an influential role in the establish¬ ment of the flourishing interdisciplinary field of American Studies in the United States and abroad following World War II, a develop¬ ment with substantial impact on curricular matters as well as the professional relation¬ ships of many scholars. In this connection he taught as a visiting professor at various uni¬ versities in India, Japan, and Australia, and participated in Fulbright conferences on Amer- •'can Studies at Cambridge and Hyderabad. Following his Olaus Petri Lectures at Uppsala, in 1965 the King of Sweden bestowed upon Professor Curti the nation's highest civil hon¬ or, a knighthood in the Royal Order of the North Star, in recognition of his contributions to the field of American Studies in Sweden. Few Wisconsin scholars have achieved such international fame or borne it with such char¬ acteristic modesty.
His many honors and well-deserved emi¬ nence notwithstanding. Merle Curti has always
119